


Cepheid

by captaineifersucht



Category: Adam (2009), Charlie Countryman (2013), Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Anal Sex, Angst, Breeding, Dildos, In relation to a disability, Knotting, M/M, Masturbation, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mpreg, Self Confidence Issues, Sex Toys, Spacedogs Appreciation Week, lying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-05
Updated: 2015-10-27
Packaged: 2018-04-25 00:22:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4939576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captaineifersucht/pseuds/captaineifersucht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nigel leaves the country when Adam goes into heat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_**Cepheid:** a variable star whose light pulsates in a regular cycle._

\--

Adam goes into heat an hour after he drops Nigel off at the airport. It hits him suddenly, without warning. 

The flush creeps up his face and slides down from his abdomen to the tips of his toes. Sweat beads on his brow and he feels slick starting to wet his boxers. It’s only his third heat since he and Nigel mated--their cycles, including Nigel’s rut, are not yet regular. His body thrums with need for his alpha, who is currently on board a flight to Hong Kong. It’s not fair, his blood sings. He can feel Nigel moving farther away from him, knows it’ll be hours yet until he can reach the drug lord by phone.

He makes quick work of securing their condo, locking the door and closing all the curtains. His clothing comes off in random places until all of his skin is bared to the cool air. Adam drags the fan out of the closet in the bedroom and turns it on. The sheets and comforter are thrown to the ground, leaving the mattress wrapped in a waterproof cover. Slick has already dripped onto the carpet, leaving dark, oily stains in his wake. 

Saliva pools around Adam’s gums when he opens the plastic container of toys that hides within their closet. The flush on his face is devoid of embarrassment, full of lust. The silicone knots are compelling, realistic and large enough to make his nostrils flare and hole clench. He reaches blindly into the jumble of fake flesh, pulls out something thick. 

His fingers slide and fumble around his slippery rim, missing penetration by millimeters. It feels like an eternity until he can press three digits fully inside, despite how wet he is. He doesn’t spend much time stretching himself--the fuzzy mess of his brain at the beginning of his heat will dull some of the burning pain that comes with some of his thicker heat aids.

Adam’s cheek presses against the covered mattress, his ass high in the air. He places the knotting dildo’s bulbous head at his entrance, steadily pushes it inside.

“ N-nigel,” he pants into the plastic sheet as the length sinks into him. The simulacrum is unyielding, the fake veins in all the wrong spots. Adam vaguely registers the sensation of _wrong, wrong, wrong_ pulsing under his skin. 

Instead of abating the feverish pain in his gut, the substitute fuels the fire.

\---

Adam manages to call Nigel somewhere between his sixth and seventh orgasm. His hair is half matted and the tips of his curls drip with sweat.

Condensation drips down the side of his glass of water, but does little to cool him. When the phone rings for more than ten seconds, Adam begins to worry that Nigel may not pick up. His mind is blurry, buzzing with untamed lust. It’s exhausting.

“ Adam? What the fuck are you doing up, darling?” Nigel’s voice sounds far away when it finally crackles over the speaker. Adam preens at the sound. “ It’s gotta be almost four in the fucking morning.”

“ My heat started.”

He can almost hear Nigel swallow thickly. “ Shit, Adam. Were you at home?”

“ Yeah,” he hums dreamily, desperate for anything that would make Nigel continue to speak. “ I need you.”

“ I know,” Nigel soothes. He sighs heavily and there’s the sound of footsteps on concrete, rhythmic and acoustic like he’s pacing in an empty warehouse. 

There’s no words for a minute and Adam keens at the uncomfortable silence. He can feel the pins and needles creeping up his spine, his mouth going dry. Another wave. 

“ I’ll be home tonight.”

“ Hm?” Adam struggles to keep his mind from wandering. He can’t focus. 

“ I’m leaving Hong Kong, sweetheart. There’s a flight leaving just before midnight. I’ll be home by eleven.”

Adam finds himself unable to form words. He moves slowly, dreamily from the kitchen back to the bedroom. Distantly, he’s aware that the phone call terminates. He falls to his hands and knees on the bed and the fake cock slides too easily inside. 

\---

Nigel rudely shoves his way past the other passengers when disembarking the plane. He’s thankful for only bringing a carry on, and manages to be one of the first five people in line to go through customs. He doesn’t hesitate to run through the airport to where the cabs are waiting. Out of breath, he spits out his address and promises to pay the driver double if he gets there in less than fifteen minutes.

He feels Adam closer to him every second. His knot begins to swell in the confines of his boxers.

The streetlights gleam through the fog, casting pools of light onto the sidewalk that Nigel sprints across. He fumbles twice with the house key, scraping it across the white paint and polished bronze lock. 

Inside, the house is darkened. Adam’s pheromones are all around him, suffocating and sweltering. As he moves deeper into the hallway, bag forgotten on the floor, the smell intensifies. It’s almost humid when he reaches the bedroom door, as if Adam’s heat slick was aerosolized.

Even worse is the mess he finds inside. 

His omega is shining with perspiration, shamelessly grinding down onto a plug. Adam’s head is thrown back in ecstasy, eyes squeezed shut and jaw slack. The thick tendon beneath his mating scar jumps and tenses when Nigel takes another step inside. His nostrils flare. The moment that Adam’s lashes flutter and his eyes focus on Nigel’s form, the ruddy head of his cock jerks against his stomach. It produces one stunted spurt of semen, watery and useless. 

“ Alpha,” the boy pants. He struggles to find his footing, to move properly after a powerful orgasm.

Nigel stops Adam before he reaches the edge of the mattress. The elder man cups his mate’s face tenderly, kindly, before leaning in to crash their lips together. He can feel Adam’s fingers fumbling at his belt, distractedly pausing when they find the beginning of his knot. 

The flicker of clarity within Adam’s eyes at the initial sight of Nigel has faded, replaced by a milky cloud of biological desire. Nigel manages to get out of his clothing between pressing his teeth and tongue to the salty skin of his mate. His actions are spurred on by the high whines from below him, the fucking fire that burns all around him. Adam’s heat has never been so bad before, and Nigel’s sympathy begins to rage out of hand.

His cock pulsates and his teeth accidentally press too deep. Control feels far away when Adam flips beneath him, pretty spine curving and unblemished ass raising as an offer. His pretty pink hole is glistening wet, slick shining invitingly down his pale thighs. The muscle is relaxed and open from a day of fake toys, terrible substitutes because Adam needed _his_ cock, needed _his_ knot.

Nigel tries to blink into coherency but finds himself mouthing at Adam’s mating scar again. It’s been months since his previous rut, since he last broke it open and now--

They’ve become one, cycles aligned. Nigel feels proprietary pride wash over him and sinks his canines into the thick scar tissue on Adam’s neck, presses the leaking head of his cock inside the waiting opening presented before him. Blood wells into his mouth, Adam’s satisfied moan graces his ears.

“ My beautiful fucking mate.” Nigel licks up the blood as it spills. He jerks his hips quickly, working his knot against the ring of muscle. He purposefully bought toys that were never big enough, not to torture his sweet mate, but out of a primal need to be the only thing to truly satisfy his omega. Since entering the bedroom, his knot had been ready to pop, and working the swollen flesh against Adam’s puffy rim was taking long enough to make him growl. Gradually, the muscle begins to loosen enough to accept half of it. “ God, Adam. You’ve been stretching yourself for a whole fucking day and you’re still so goddamn tight, baby.”

Adam tries to shove backwards, hole stretched taut, white with the pressure. “ For you, Nigel. I want to make you feel good.”

The broken sound of Adam’s voice makes Nigel hot all over. He licks into the exposed tissue of the others neck, uses his free hand to gather up some of the dripping slick and rub it into Adam’s tense rim. His hips rock in a steady rhythm, out a centimeter and in two, until he finally sinks deep inside. 

Nigel can feel his entire being pulsing inside of his mate, their heartbeats throbbing as one. Adam is incoherent, babbling and keening, his hips angled enticingly upward for Nigel to thrust as he pleases. He reaches below Adam’s body to give his jerking erection a small stroke before doing exactly that. 

An omega’s body is built for the merciless onslaught that Nigel unleashes upon Adam. Their asses are round with cushioning from the brutal thrusts, lumbar curve of the spine arranged in an exaggerated lordosis position for better display, and--especially during heat--enough slick produced to lubricate and prevent damage from the entire process.

It had been difficult when their cycles weren’t synced--when Nigel’s ruts weren’t bolstered by copious lubricant and when, during Adam’s heat, Nigel had been unable to thrust furiously enough to dampen Adam’s raging fever.

Now, they are the image of traditional mating biology. Nigel’s possessive markings spread down from the mating bite to teeth imprints across Adam’s shoulders and back, partially-formed half moon bruises on his hips from Nigel’s grip. Adam’s keen and cries spur on Nigel’s orgasm. The omega lowers his head fully to the mattress, doesn’t dare touch himself. All decisions have been left to Nigel, his alpha, to determine.

“ Please,” Adam begs when Nigel begins to grind his knot against the boy’s prostate. 

Nigel feels sweat dripping from his body to the thinner one below him. He can no longer fully thrust, his knot has swelled to the point where it is trapped. Orgasm roils in his gut, a barely controlled storm that threatens to begin in seconds. 

“ Want me to fucking breed you, baby?” The thought is intoxicating, maddening. “ I’ll make you my fucking bitch, Adam, full of my pups.” Adam gasps and his hole tightens. Nigel imagines the boy’s belly round and full, blooming with life. “ Oh, you like that, don’t you? You wanna be my fucking house omega, gorgeous? Good for fucking and breeding and taking care of my kids.”

He sees Adam’s nails scrabbling at the plastic cover on the mattress, his head nodding rapidly. “ Please!”

It’s enough, it’s too much, that Adam would be anything that Nigel wanted, that he’s so deep in heat that all he wants is fertile seed inside of him. Nigel briefly sees red before the first flood of cum rushes out of him. Adam’s cock spurts weakly in his palm, weeping a small quantity of sterile semen that Nigel quickly brings to his lips to lap up. 

The waves of his orgasm become weaker and by the time the fourth stream of ejaculate begins, Nigel’s mind is beginning to clear. Adam is still whimpering softly below him. He cradles the boy into his arms, situates them both onto their sides. The position is comfortable with his knot tying them together. It’ll be at least another twenty minutes until it begins to deflate. They’ll enjoy ten or fifteen minutes of coherency before one of them devolves back into primal need. In two to three days, their hormones will calm down enough to leave the house. 

Some people see the mating cycle as a hassle--needing to take off work, be stuck only fucking for almost a week in some cases. Especially if the couple was done having children and using birth control, what was the point? Nigel, however, loves Adam so uninhibited. His omega is completely freed from any routines, suddenly confident where he was once before shy. 

He runs his fingertips gingerly across the small bump on Adam’s stomach, tight and bloated with the semen plugged inside. 

“ I fucking love you, gorgeous.”

Adam presses his ass back, lazy grin spread across his face. “ Love you. I hope it takes too, Nigel.”

“ Hope what?”

“ That I’m pregnant.”

“ Oh, darling.” Nigel can’t stop his smile. He feels Adam’s fingers interlace with his own, cradling his stomach. In his head, he imagines the bump larger and tiny feet kicking beneath their palms.

\---

Adam looks at the double pink lines and feels his hands start to shake.

He has three more tests, for confirmation. 

His heart is in his throat and Nigel is just around the corner, watching news while cooking their dinner. He could tell his alpha, he should. Just a month ago, they had said they wanted a litter. But he was in heat, and he wanted to please his alpha.

Adam feels his eyes and nose begin to burn with tears. What if the pups are like him? Not right in the head, and he was so lucky to find Nigel. What if they never did find a Nigel? If they all only found Beth’s that broke their hearts? 

His breathing speeds up, the plastic stick clatters to the tile floor.

What has he done?


	2. Nebula

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a HUGE thank you to everyone who commented and encouraged me writing this. it's been a really rough couple of weeks academically and professionally for me, so it took a bit longer than expected. if there's still interest, i'm considering doing timestamps this winter :)

_**Nebula:** a massive cloud of dust and gas in outer space--the birthplace of the stars._

\---

When a month passes by and Adam’s pregnancy tests still come up positive, he quietly schedules an appointment with his gynecologist. He appears to be his normal, jittery self to any bystanders, but his guts are a jumble of butterflies and nausea--not all of which he can fairly blame on the life growing inside him.

He tries to convince himself that he’s not lying to Nigel. Omegas miscarry all the time, especially in the first trimester. He doesn’t want to get his Alpha’s hopes up. Nigel always has so much to worry about--why add to it? 

Adam settles on considering his secret as an omission of truth, since Nigel never directly asks the question. When Nigel expresses concern over his morning sickness, Adam concedes to seeing a physician. He’s lucky that his appointment is the next day, and that Nigel has something going on with his work.

\---

“ I can cancel my fucking meeting, darling.”

“ It’s okay, Nigel. I’ll be fine. It’s probably just a virus, and there’ll be nothing they can give to me except for symptom management.”

Nigel seems like he’s ready to argue again, but eventually settles for wrapping Adam into a hug, despite the omega’s protests of possibly being contagious. “ You call me if anyone fucking tries anything. I’ll be there damn quick.”

Adam kisses away the last of his Alpha’s fears and waves before he boards the bus. 

The trip is exactly fourteen minutes. It takes three minutes to walk from the bus stop to the building and another five to find the receptionist desk in the maze of office suites. The interior of the waiting room is decorated in muted, pastel colors. The chairs look comfortable and there’s even nesting space on the floor, with weighted blankets and oversized pillows. Adam feels drawn to them, even though he’s nowhere near that stage of his pregnancy. 

When it’s his turn in line, Adam hands the secretary his state ID and insurance card.

“ You’re the primary on this card?” She sounds skeptical, even though his name is clearly printed under the bold, capital letters reading **PRIMARY CARDHOLDER**. 

Adam nods. “ My company offers better health insurance than my Alpha’s.”

She sniffs, blond curls bouncing as she gathers paperwork. When her eyes meet Adam’s, they’re cold and full of judgement. “ Bring this clipboard with you when the nurse comes to get your vitals.”

He thinks of what Nigel would say to her as he unsteadily pens in the date of his last heat cycle, as well as his Alpha’s last rut. The blue ink bleeds a heavy dot when his hand stutters for a moment, skin feeling itchy and throat tight. Adam can sense all of the mated pairs around him without looking up, knows that most of the omegas in the clinic are accompanied. Suddenly, he feels anxious. A heavy feeling settles in his abdomen, because Nigel should be here, he should know.

“ Mr. Raki?”

Adam looks up at the male beta in purple scrubs. “ I-I’m not finished.”

“ That’s perfectly fine.” The nurse smiles gently and beckons Adam towards the door anyways. They walk down a well lit hallway to a scale, where Adam slips out of his loafers and coat before stepping onto the machine. It beeps twice when the reading has settled. He doesn’t look at the numbers. 

The second hallway is lined with doors that are almost all shut. Adam guided into one near the end. 

“ I’m going to take your blood pressure and temperature, get a blood sample, and then I’ll have you do a urine collection and you can get changed into this gown.” He places a folded fabric robe and a collection container within Adam’s line of view. “ I’m Dan, by the way. I’ll be your nurse today. Have you see Dr. Lonser before?”

Adam shakes his head.

The nurse continues to chat while pumping air into the blood pressure cuff and listening to the heavy thump of Adam’s pulse. The plastic-covered thermometer probe under his tongue makes it impossible to reply, so Adam settles for yes or no communications with his head. Dan makes the blood draw easy. Adam’s pupils widen as the liquid quickly pools into the stoppered vial, but it’s over and a bandage affixed over the small puncture wound before he can voice any concerns.

When Dan leaves with a small smile, Adam takes a deep breath and grabs the plastic container from the countertop. He exits the room to the hallway and finds the bathroom. There’s a laminated paper on the wall by the toilet, instructing males and females on how to properly collect a sterile sample. Adam reads the directions twice before he follows them.

On the way back to his room, Adam leaves his sample (wrapped in several paper towels) at the nurses station, a blush on his face. The door closes behind him and he starts to shed his clothes. He folds them neatly and puts his socks back on because the tiled floor is cool and the air conditioner seems to be on high. 

The gown wrinkles in all the wrong places when he sits back on the table, paper sheet noisily crinkling. 

He stares at a large medical illustration poster of the omegaen womb, both male and female, and daydreams of Nigel. What would the Alpha say to the nurse? Would he have been protective? Growled, even, at the smiles cast in Adam’s direction? Adam’s stomach churns at the thought--he knows Nigel would end up trying to claim him in one way or another in the exam room.

He’s drawn out of his reverie by a soft knock on the door before it swings open. 

A female alpha enters the room, her pencil skirt pressed and lab coat pristine. The smile she gives Adam is warm. The way she quickly looks him over is clinical.

“ Adam, I’m Dr. Lonser, your obstetrician. How’re you doing?” She offers her hand, which Adam shakes.

“ I’m nervous. Scared. All my tests come up positive, I test four times a week. I’ve used two of every brand available.” 

His doctor sits in the rolling stool, her brow furrowing. “ Why are you scared, Adam?”

Adam can feel his fingers twitching and runs them over his face, scrubs at his eyes before clasping them in his lap.

“ S-Should I have used a control group? To make sure the tests were working right?”

Dr. Lonser’s gaze flicks to the electronic chart and then searches for eye contact again. Her voice grows soft. “ Do you feel safe at home?”

Instead of asking another question, Adam frowns. He thinks of Nigel, his alpha that would raze the earth if anything happened to him. With Nigel around, Adam feels consciously protected. “ Yes. What does that have to do with the possibility of me being pregnant?”

“ I want you to feel free to make your own choices, Adam. It says on your chart that you’re mated. Are they forcing you into something you are uncomfortable with?”

“ Nigel loves me,” he says with a note of passion. His voice and posture quickly deflate. “I...I don’t want to fail him.”

“ And what would that entail?”

“ If the baby ended up like me.” Adam can feel the tears stinging his eyes, burning the back of his throat. “ I don’t want them to be messed up. It’s not fair. He deserves happy, healthy pups. Not ones with autism.”

The doctor makes a ‘tch’ing noise, her hand on Adam’s shoulder. A box of tissues is placed by his hip. “ You just told me that your alpha loves you, Adam. He would certainly love any children you produce together.”

Adam nods slowly, because the logic does make sense. “ When will I know, for sure?”

“ We’ll have you come back in two days to draw more blood and measure your beta-hcG levels. If they’ve doubled, you’re pregnant.”

“ I-I meant about the autism.”

Dr. Lonser spends the next twenty minutes explaining early detection and warning signs to Adam. There’s no genetic tests to be run, or ultrasounds to be had that can predict anything. It makes Adam queasy, his vision swim. He doesn’t know what to do. There’s more information and treatment now than when he was a child, accommodations and understanding. But there’s still guilt simmering at the edge of his conscious, that he would bring this upon a defenseless being.

He schedules a visit in two days and checks out, palm resting on his abdomen. He thinks of small fingers and smaller toes.

\---

Three days later, Adam receives a phone call and the confirmation that he is five weeks pregnant.

\---

A soothing breeze curls around Nigel’s exposed ankle. It’s barely dawn, the sky a brightening gray. Under normal circumstances, he would pull his foot beneath the shelter of blankets that he and Adam share--but the situation isn’t normal.

He’s wide awake and hyper-aware of the supple form of his mate. The smell of Adam is intoxicating. For the past weeks, he’s noticed the soothing sweet aura encompassing the omega. Adam’s pulse points seem to be secreting a cocktail of warm, calming pheromones. 

Adam smells fertile. 

Nigel knows his omega’s next heat is soon. Knows that the scent wafting from his skin makes him feel protective and feral. This time, Nigel will prove his strength, show Adam that he’s a suitable, capable Alpha. By the end of the heat cycle, Nigel will make sure that his beautiful omega is nice and pregnant.

\---

Adam’s heat never comes. 

The fear that their cycles have unsynced bubbles inside Nigel’s chest in rare moments of clarity during his rut. Once again, Adam’s body is unable to produce enough slick, his frame tense and muscles taut instead of pliant. Nigel growls each time his knot inflates, defensive and possessive of his exposed mate. 

When the haze of proprietary lust recedes to the ends of Nigel’s nerves, he laments the lack of Adam’s heat. His mate is still vomiting, clearly fatigued, and without estrus. Sure, Adam saw a doctor almost two months ago, but it didn’t seem like he was getting better. What if the scent he’d interpreted as potential for life was something worse, a serious sickness?

It’s the first morning Nigel hasn’t begun by pinning Adam to the mattress. Instead, he stands hunched over the kitchen counter, staring into the steaming mug of coffee. Adam’s retching ceases, replaced by the soft sound of bare feet padding across the tile.

“ I’m fucking worried about you, darling.”

Adam sighs, nimble fingers touching Nigel’s bicep. “ I told you, Nigel. I’m fine. The doctor started me on medicine.”

“ Fucking fine?” Nigel turns to embrace Adam, palms cupping narrow hips. “ She sounds like a goddamn idiot to me, because the pills sure as hell aren’t working. Not when you’re sick and you missed your heat, I could have fucking hurt you, Adam. Don’t you fucking know that?”

The boy won’t look at him, his face pressed into Nigel’s bare chest. He can feel the sharp intake of breath through the nostrils, a lip trembling. Adam shakes his head.

“ Seriously, Adam? I’m supposed to fucking take care of you. You’re sick, baby. I gotta bring you back to the goddamn doctor. We’re getting a second opinion.” 

“ No!” Adam steps back, still shaking his head. His eyes are shining bright with unshed tears.

Nigel puts his hands up in surrender. The panic he feels welling up in his chest won’t show on his face. 

“ I...I’m s-sorry,” Adam stutters, clearly holding back emotion the best he can. His arms are wrapped tightly around his own abdomen. He’s still stepping backwards. “ I’m bad, so stupid. I’m not a good omega, a bad mate.”

When Adam’s teeth start chattering, Nigel feels some of his resolve crumble. He promised himself to never scare his mate, and he’s done just that, but he can’t let Adam break down alone. Adam’s back hits the wall and he begins to slide down it, Nigel rushes to him. 

“ You’re the perfect omega,” Nigel promises fiercely as he sinks to the floor beside the boy. “ What the hell are you talking about, darling?”

“ I’ve been l-lying.”

The confession is shocking. Adam hates lying. Nigel is indifferent, since most of his confederates cheat, steal, and murder. Lies are the least of their concerns.

“ It’s okay, baby. I forgive you. Everybody lies at some point.”

“ B-but not to their mates.”

“ Would you feel better if you told me?”

Adam nods through a sob, but the motion ends with him smiling tearfully. He starts and stops multiple times, humming. Nigel can be patient with his lovely boy, can be anything that Adam needs. He tries not to think of what Adam could be lying about after seeing the doctor, forcefully pushes the thoughts of cancer and HIV from his mind. This time is Adam’s to speak. Nigel just needs to listen.

Eventually, Adam gets out the words. Nigel’s ears are ringing, his face hurts, and he’s crying as the sentence replays on a loop in his head. 

“ I’m pregnant.”

**Author's Note:**

> sequel???? hit me up [here](http://www.lemonscientist.tumblr.com)


End file.
